1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to methods for the synthesis and purification polyhedral boranes, their salts, amines and amine boranes.
2. Description of Related Art
Existing methods of producing salts of polyhedral borane anions from borohydrides are typically based on pyrolysis of tetraalkylammonium borohydrides in the presence of a high-boiling alkane solvent. The reliability of many of the developed methods is questionable, especially of those methods that claim selective formation of the decahydrodecaborate anion.
Isotopically enriched boron-10 compounds, such as salts of polyhedral boranes closo-decahydrodecaborate and closo-dodecahydrododecaborate, can be used in research laboratories for the preparation of therapeutic agents for the boron neutron capture therapy of cancer (BNCT). However, these compounds are not commercially accessible. As a result, there is a need to provide a straightforward and easily scalable method for the synthesis, isolation, and purification of boron-10 isotopically-enriched compounds.